#repost@catapultanimallove4 with @get_repost
・・・
#repost@overaboveafrica
・・・
🚨 warning: graphic content🚨
we try not to post this type of content very often, but sometimes it serves as a necessary reminder of the harsh reality of the poaching crisis. #neverforget#repost@smithsonianmagazine
・・・
photo by @martinbuzora. *warning* sensitive content. it was early dawn when lewa conservancy's anti-poaching team received a call that an elephant was shot near leparua settlement in kenya. i was woken in my tent and hopped in the back of an anti-poaching vehicle along with the vet and security teams, having no idea what awaited us. when we arrived on the scene, a local samburu elder led us through some bushes and into a small clearing, where an adult female elephant was churning up the ground with her massive feet. she had fallen from a gunshot wound the day before, and had been writhing there for over 24 hours. in the end her wounds were too severe, and she did not make it. in cases like this it is the responsibility of the kenya wildlife service to remove the tusks and safely transport them to a government vault in an attempt to keep them off the black market. the first step in this horrific de-tusking process is to remove the trunk of the elephant. this was one of the hardest days of my career as a documentary filmmaker, and one of the most harrowing. hopefully my images catch enough people's attention, and make them ask more questions not just about the plight of elephants, but the state of our planet as a whole and our role in it. please support organizations like @forrangers whose sole purpose is to train and equip africa's rangers on the front lines of wildlife conservation. .
.
.
.
.
.
#forrangers#kenya#africa#elephant#stoppoaching#trunk#martinbuzora#savetheelephants#photooftheday#nikon#sad#animals#animalrights#wildlife#vegan#veganism#vegansofig#knowledge#awareness#education#truth#world#change#bethechange#earthlings#animalsofinstagram#wakeup#sadness